no gasket=solution?

[chilipalmer]

Greetings.
Recently I found an oil leak on the valve cover of my Puma (I have the 1.4 with the aluminum valve cover) so I took the car to the mechanic to have the gasket replaced. The gasket & sealant he put actually made the leak worse so having consulted with fellow forum users I was recommended to use the Elring gasket and a product called Stag Wellseal. The leak continues and I noticed the gasket is not properly seated. I don't trust the mechanic anymore so I want to do the job myself. It occurred to me maybe if I remove the gasket and just use the Slag Wellseal, it might do the trick. The other option is to buy a new valve cover, which would set be back about 400 quid. Could this work?

 

[DOH]

Hi I have previously provided advice on this .
However,1) can you clarify how it was determined that your rocker cover was distorted?
2) If the recently fitted Elring ?gasket has been damaged, it will need replacing.
If it's undamaged and provided it is still pliable and you clean off all the old sealant , make sure you degrease properly the 2 surfaces the gasket makes contact with, apply fresh sealant in the covers recess and also to the head where the cover fits( but only a fine layer there).
You cannot seal it up without a gasket , it may work for a few weeks but then it will start leaking again.
I have previously recommended a different sealant to what you used, give that a try on your next attempt.

 

[chilipalmer]

1) I was visually examining the valve cover to determine where the leaks were coming from and I saw one edge of the gasket "extruding" from the top right corner of the valve cover. Maybe the mechanic overtightened the screws. I'll check tomorrow with my torque wrench.
2) I don't think the gasket is bad. It's just hard to make it sit right and I reckon the mechanic rushed the job.
What sealant do you use?

 

[Wild E. Coyote]

Just about any would/should do the job. Industry standard is so high these days you can't miss, IMHO